Karoline Leavitt Goes Scorched Earth on Democrats Over Shutdown: ‘Lack the Courage’ to Do ‘Right Thing’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt ripped into Democrats during a TV appearance on Thursday — accusing the left of harming their own constituents while prolonging the government shutdown.
Appearing on Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, Leavitt repeatedly blamed Democrats for the first government shutdown since the 35-day standstill in President Donald Trump’s first term.
Democrats “know what the right thing to do is here they just lack the courage to do it,” Leavitt told hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino, adding that the shutdown has presented “critical consequences and it’s the Democrats’ fault.”
Leavitt’s appearance came hours after her boss revealed that he would be meeting with his OMB director, Russell Vought, to look into what “SCAM” Democrat agencies can be nixed as the shutdown goes on.
“I have a meeting today with Russ Vought, he of PROJECT 2025 Fame, to determine which of the many Democrat Agencies, most of which are a political SCAM, he recommends to be cut, and whether or not those cuts will be temporary or permanent,” declared Trump in a post on Truth Social. “I can’t believe the Radical Left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity. They are not stupid people, so maybe this is their way of wanting to, quietly and quickly, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DJT.”
When asked if Trump’s Truth Social threat was real or a “negotiating tactic,” Leavitt responded: Oh, it’s very real and the Democrats should know that they put to the White House and the president in this position. And if they don’t want further harm on their constituents back home, then they need to reopen the government. It’s very simple: Pass the clean, continuing resolution and all of this goes away
Read the exchange here:
KAROLINE LEAVITT: As the vice president said at the White House press briefing yesterday, he and our legislative affairs shop and the president himself continued to be in very important discussions with these moderate Democrats and also with our allies Senate Republicans who have good relationships with these moderates. And they know what the right thing to do is here they just lack the courage to do it. But they need to step up and they need to vote for this clean continuing resolution to keep the government open that they voted for as recently as March! That they voted for 13 times previously in the past. So there is zero excuse for them to shut down our government right now and they know it! And very soon, the American people and their constituents back home and states from New Hampshire to Nevada to Arizona to Florida are going to start feeling the pinch of this Democrat-led shutdown. We have millions of troops who are currently going without pay. We have women, children, and infants who cannot apply for the very important WIC program for that critical food and life assistance and you also look at air traffic controllers who are now having to work without pay. These are critical consequences and it’s the Democrats’ fault and they have a chance to reverse course and they should.
DANA PERINO: Somebody earlier on our program said Russell Vought went ahead and signed off so that every military member does paid, but are you saying they are working now without?
LEAVITT: We are certainly looking into how we can fix this problem. Look, we have $0 coming into the federal government right now because the Democrats shut it down, so what Russ Vought is working diligently on is examining how to fix we can fix this mess to ensure that critical funding continues, that we can get people paid. But the Democrats are making that very difficult. That’s why the president put out a statement this morning, saying that we’re going to start looking across the board at layoffs and at agencies that we feel do not best serve the American taxpayer and that may need to be halted or permanently cut.
BILL HEMMER: So on that, I wanted to ask you about that because you mentioned Russ Vought. I think that came out at about 8:00 this morning about cutting certain programs that they deem are not necessary. Is that real, or is that a negotiating tactic?
LEAVITT: Oh, it’s very real and the Democrats should know that they put to the White House and the president in this position. And if they don’t want further harm on their constituents back home, then they need to reopen the government. It’s very simple: Pass the clean, continuing resolution and all of this goes away. We would not be having these discussions here at the White House today if not for the Democrats voting to shut the government down. This is an unfortunate consequence. And the president and Russ Vought will be meeting on that later today.
Watch above via Fox News.
